Storm

Elle Outside

The steady thump of my heart matches the CD that’s permanently jammed on reply in my radio, but when I lightly tap my door open and only hear the echoes burning in the back of my mind, it skips more than just a few beats. I know it’s happening; it’s starting; rifgt then and there I come to terms with the terrifying concept of dying and the probability of death. 99% of the world’s population may simply… die.

I hear the CD silence and while I uselessly try to flick on the light, I know it’s all over.  The power’s off.

A light drizzle hits the rooftops and the pavement outside my window, and that’s when I hear the screams.

They know too, I decide, sinking to my knees. A knock on the door turns to ear-rattling pounding, but it’s all faint, deadening noise in my brain, and I slide under my bed just as I hear the crash of the door being kicked down.

“Hello? Hello, Miss Sabourin… you are required to attend the town meeting today. You must join us immediately in the town park-” the official informing my of my being cordially invited to a slaughter-fest gets cut off by a punch straight to his face. I watch the scene unfold with my eyes squinted, and I recognize the sneaker that belong to the boy that punched the uniform practically sentencing me to death.

“Louis?” I cough, rolling out from under my twin bed, my soft duvet falling on my like a big fluffy white cloud. I scramble to my feet.

“Babe,” the raven-haired possessive bad boy growls, stepping over the knocked out official to hold me in his tattooed arms, “Dang it, you’re safe now, kitten.”

I let myself fall into his chest. “But… even if we escape this town, won’t the storm kill us, Lou?” I whimper, leaning into him. He doesn’t seem to care about the weight I’m putting on him, just that I’m close to him.

Just that I’m okay.

“I won’t let anything happen to you, Elle,” he swears it like an oath, superfluously, because I already knew this, “and besides, kitten, did you really think a rich guy like me wouldn’t have a bomb shelter and enough stashed food to last the two of us two years. Huh, kitten?”

I smile up at him, through my fear.

“We’re going to be okay.” He assures me, but it seems more like he’s reassuring himself.

I nod, biting my lip. “I hope so. What are we going to do about you-know-who? She doesn’t know that they did this on purpose. She doesn’t know they’re going to kill all of us, and worse, she doesn’t know what they’re going to do to her.

"When she gets in the bunker, she'll be safe, Elle. It's only when she gets out that the problem arises, and it's not our problem until she does."